#16 Learning about wikis & #17 Sandbox

I remember about 18 months ago when attitudes to the original Mr Wiki (Jimmy W and his Wikipedia) were quite negative because every ordinary Tom, Dick or Harry could add and edit. Well, obviously people out there voted with their feet or fingers or whatever - it is now one of the top 20 most-visited sites and I think most of us recognise it is really useful as a first stop. Jimmy Wales's original vision of everyone on the planet being able to get access to the sum of the world's knowledge was actually the essence of Web 2.0's inclusivity (is that a word?), participation and collaboration and I think it is a great vision. One of the good things I found in my explorations was this Online Community report which has a short list of good tips on when the wisdom of the collective might work best.

I did find another one that was briefly fun for a quick squizz - lots of "How To" articles. How to : pick a lock, fix a scratched CD, get a job with the UN, , kiss (!), be a gothic Lolita, call in sick when you just want a day off !!! (And there's another 25, 034 after these - but it does have a search engine attached). And the best advice of all was a spot of dog wisdom. . . (Yes, Saturday was slow)

I had also previously come across the Library Success wiki and found it very useful - at the time, it was great to check out what was happening in digital reference. And we have a training wiki now here at SLV, thanks to Mark = great application.

The sandbox thing? I dutifully checked it out but freaked when I saw that I had to give yet another username and password so I haven't added my blog to the list. I could see that I could, but it didn't mean I needed to - and I'm absolutely sure it wouldn't add a single jot to anybody's meaningful experience of this learning exercise. As for the other toys in the sandbox, I'd rather talk to someone about their favourite film or their favourite music and I'd certainly rather have a face-to-face stoush about dogs being superior to cats (meerkats are fine), than to bother adding my comments online.

BTW I discovered a good site while checking wikis out - well-written, simple outline for newbies like me at Geekgirls.